This application relates generally to the field of data storage devices and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to the detection of servo sector flaws using both position error signal (PES) thresholds and transducer velocity thresholds.
Modern hard disc drives include one or more rigid discs that are coated with a magnetizable medium and mounted on the hub of a spindle motor for rotation at a constant high speed. Information is stored on the discs in a plurality of concentric circular tracks by an array of transducers (xe2x80x9cheadsxe2x80x9d) mounted to a radial actuator for movement of the heads relative to the discs.
Typically, such radial actuators employ a voice coil motor to position the heads with respect to the disc surfaces. The heads are mounted via flexures at the ends of a plurality of arms which project radially outward from an actuator body. The actuator body pivots about a shaft mounted to the disc drive housing at a position closely adjacent the outer extreme of the discs. The pivot shaft is parallel with the axis of rotation of the spindle motor and the discs, so that the heads move in a plane parallel with the surfaces of the discs.
The actuator voice coil motor includes a coil mounted on the side of the actuator body opposite the head arms so as to be immersed in the magnetic field of a magnetic circuit comprising one or more permanent magnets and magnetically permeable pole pieces. When controlled DC current is passed through the coil, an electromagnetic field is set up which interacts with the magnetic field of the magnetic circuit to cause the coil to move in accordance with the well-known Lorentz relationship. As the coil moves, the actuator body pivots about the pivot shaft and the heads move across the disc surfaces.
Control of the position of the heads is typically achieved with a closed loop servo system such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,262,907 entitled HARD DISC DRIVE WITH IMPROVED SERVO SYSTEM, issued to Duffy et al., assigned to the assignee of the present invention. A typical servo system utilizes servo information that is written to the discs during the disc drive manufacturing process to detect and control the position of the heads through the generation of a position error signal (PES) that is indicative of the position of the head with respect to a selected track. More particularly, during track following in which the head is caused to follow a selected track, the servo system generates the PES from the received servo information and then uses the PES to generate a correction signal which is provided to a power amplifier to control the amount of current through the actuator coil, in order to adjust the position of the head accordingly.
Typically, the PES is presented as a position dependent signal having a magnitude indicative of the relative distance between the head and the center of a track and a polarity indicative of the direction of the head with respect to the track center. Thus, it is common for the PES to have normalized values corresponding to a range of, for example xe2x88x921.0 to +1.0, as the head is swept across a selected track and to have a value corresponding to a value of 0 when the head is positioned over the center of the track. As will be recognized, modern servo systems typically generate the PES as a sequence of digital samples which generally correspond to the above analog range.
The PES value is generated by the servo system by comparing the relative signal strengths of burst signals generated from precisely located magnetized servo fields in the servo information on the disc surface. The servo fields are generally arranged in an xe2x80x9coffset checkerboardxe2x80x9d pattern so that, through manipulation of the magnitudes of the burst signals provided to the servo system as the servo fields are read, the relative position of the head to a particular track center can be determined and controlled. More particularly, digital representations of the analog burst signals are typically provided to a servo loop microprocessor (or digital signal processor), which obtains a digital representation of the value of the PES from a selected combination of the input digital representations of the analog burst signals. The microprocessor then compares the value of the PES to a desired value indicative of the desired position of the head to the selected track and issues a digital correction signal to the power amplifier, which in turn provides an analog current to the actuator coil to adjust the position of the actuator accordingly.
The servo information, including the servo fields, are written to the discs during the manufacturing process using a highly precise servo track writer. Although methodologies vary in the writing of the servo information, typically the disc drive is mounted on the servo track writer and the appropriate write signals are provided to the heads of the disc drive to write the servo information while the discs are rotated by the disc drive spindle motor. A mechanical pusher arm is used to incrementally advance the heads over the surfaces of the discs while a closed loop positional control system ensures the heads are properly located relative to the discs. Depending upon a particular configuration, each servo field is typically written using a plurality of rotations of the disc, with a portion of the servo field being written during each rotation of the disc.
Once all of the discs for a given disc drive have been servo-written, the disc drive is typically subjected to a number of performance and media test. One such test involves examining the discs of the disc drive for defective servo sectors. During this test data is written to and then read from each of the data sectors on each of the tracks on a disc or discs. During the read/write testing process the absolute value of each PES value is compared to a predetermined safe-threshold. Should the value of the PES for, or associated with, a particular sample exceed the threshold, a servo unsafe signal is generated to indicate that there was an error in tracking or that the PES value that was generated as a result of reading a particular servo sector is faulty. Once defective servo sectors have been located, the defective servo sectors are typically marked or designated in a defect map so that these sectors, or tracks containing these sectors, can be avoided or ignored during normal disc drive operation.
A selected PES value may exceed the safe-threshold value during a read or write operation for a variety of reasons. One such reason is the existence of a localized defect in the servo information associated with the selected PES value; in such a case, the head is correctly located with respect to the track, but the reported PES value erroneously indicates otherwise. Such a defect in the servo information can occur as a result of a localized anomaly in the media on the surface of a disc, so that the media does not possess the necessary magnetic properties to allow the servo information to be written at this location.
Conventional disc drive testing methods, as described above, are typically effective in locating defective servo sectors that are the result of a PES value exceeding a set PES threshold. Unfortunately, there are other servo sector flaws that do not manifest themselves by causing a PES value to exceed a set PES threshold. For example, a servo sector error known as a track tear may occur which never causes the PES value to exceed a set PES threshold. A track tear error is characterized as a radial discontinuity, so that a track having a track tear ends at a different radius than it begins. That is, the radius of the track varies with respect to angular position over at least a portion of the track. If the defective servo sectors which cause the track tear errors are not identified during the performance and media tests, the disc drive may pass the manufacturing tests only to fail later in reliability testing or during operation after the drive has been shipped from the manufacturer to the ultimate disc drive user.
As such, there is a need for an improved approach to detecting the defective servo sectors, which includes locating defective servo sectors that are manifested by a PES value exceeding a set PES threshold as well as defective servo sectors that do not cause a PES value exceeding a set PES threshold, but which still cause track tears.
Against this backdrop the present invention has been developed. Various embodiments of the present invention relate to methods for identifying defective servo sector in a data storage device. More particularly, various methods described herein relate to identifying as defective those servo sectors in the data storage device having an associated position error signal (PES) value that exceeds a predetermined PES threshold value, as well as those servo sectors in the data storage device having a related transducer velocity signal that exceeds a predetermined velocity threshold value.
One method described herein relates to detecting defective servo sectors in a data storage device. In this method, data is stored in data sectors on tracks located in the data storage device. In addition to the data sectors, the tracks also include a number of servo sectors that include, among other things, information that is used in determining a position error signal (PES) value for each servo sector. The data storage device also includes a transducer for accessing the information in the servo sectors. With respect to this particular method, a first servo sector on one of the tracks is accessed using the transducer. A determination is then made as to whether a position error signal (PES) value associated with the first servo sector exceeds a predetermined PES threshold value. If the PES threshold value associated with the first servo sector exceeds the predetermined PES threshold value, the first servo sector is identified as defective. If, however, the PES value associated with the first servo sector does not exceed the predetermined PES threshold value, a determination is made as to whether a transducer velocity signal associated with the first servo sector exceeds a predetermined velocity threshold value. If the transducer velocity signal associated with the first servo sector exceeds the predetermined velocity threshold value, the first servo sector is identified as defective. That is, even if the PES value associated with the first servo sector servo does not exceed the predetermined PES threshold value, the first servo sector will still be recognized as defective if the transducer velocity signal associated with the first servo sector exceeds the predetermined velocity threshold value sector. In this way, defective servo sectors that may have gone unnoticed using prior defective servo sector detection methods that will be identified.
A more complete appreciation of the present invention and its improvements can be obtained by reference to the accompanying drawings, which are briefly summarized below, and to the following detailed description of presently preferred embodiments of the invention, and to the appended claims.